Stand tall
by kandy2431
Summary: This is the story of a girl and her knight who made their dreams come true. After they came to possess the seven stars of Suzaku, powers were bestowed upon them. Tragedies unfold and happiness seems unattainable at times, they kept pushing until the end. RE-WRITE


_~~You are stronger than you think-remember to stand tall._

_Every challenge in your life helps you to grow._

_Every problem you encounter strengthens your mind and your soul._

_Every trouble you overcome increases your understanding of life._

_When all your troubles weigh heavily on your shoulders,_

_remember that beneath the burden you can stand tall,_

_because you are never given more than you can handle-_

_and you are stronger than you think._

_Stand Tall~~_

* * *

"Damn bus, damn people, damn mud, and DAMN ALL BUS DRIVERS TO HELL!" I ranted as I roller bladed at the speed of light down the side walk. The morning's light breeze turned into a torrent of winds stinging my face and whipping my hair behind me as I desperatly raced the six miles the school was from my apartment complex.

I bet your wondering why I'm cursing everything and anything I've come into contact with this fine morning.

Let's back track then.

I had woken up on time this morning. Actually, I had woken up a little bit earlier, cause it was friday and I wanted to look kinda nice today. So, I spent all that time taking a shower, blow drying my hair and putting on a little make up, ya know, so I could look presentable to the world. I went down to the bus stop in a great mood; the sun was shining down on our little city, in as good of a mood as I was this morning, and I felt great.

I greeted everyone at the bus stop, smiles all around and everyone was happy that it was friday. I was talking to the nice old lady who lives across the hall from my mom and I when she told me my shoe was untied. I looked down to see, yea it was, and bent down to re-tie it.

That's when the damn bus got to our stop.

That's also when the driver closed the doors before I could finish tying my god damn shoe.

Finally, as it sped away, leaving little ol' me to wonder why this was happening to me, it ran through an ocean of a mud puddle and splashed mud, fast food wrappers, water and god knows what else onto my previouisly prestine school uniform.

I stood there a good minute, processing what had just happened. I looked down at my tarnished uniform, and muttered one simple word.

"Shit."

I ran up the 5 slights of stairs, unable to take the elevator due to repairs being done on it, crashed into the apartment, charged into my room, tore off my uniform and threw on the first articles of clothing I could get my hands on, hoping to god school administrators would just look the other way when they heard my excuse.

I looked at the clock in my kitchen and screamed in aggrivation.

I had 20 minutes to run six miles to my school without being late.

"Running late for school again dear?" My mother had asked in an uninterested tone as she shuffled her way to the coffee pot in her pink bunny slippers and robe, dead to the world until she had her a good few cups of the energy enducing beverage.

My mother, Sarah James-Hiroshima, was a beautiful woman with silky blond hair and deep brown eyes. She was small and petite, unlike my tall, more athletic build, and couldn't run 4 feet without collapsing. She was an american-world history professor at the local college and only worked 5 day out of the week. She had moved here from Texas when she graduated from Sam Houston with a doctrine in education and a minor in Greek Mythology. She was only supposed to stay in Tokyo for 3 years on a new exchange teacher thing, but she met my dad and loved Japan, so she made her residence permanent.

Most people see no resemblance between the two of us, thinking I may have been adopted. My mom always said, though, that I got all of my looks from my dad. I'd have to have a talk with him, if I ever meet the man. He has some explaining to do with this vibrant, cherry red hair of mine.

"You have NO idea!" I exclaimed as I ran around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

"Mom, I need my skates!"

"Try the balcony dear."

I dashed back into my room and opened the sliding glass doors. I looked around hurriedly, finally finding my skates behind my lounge chair.

"Bye mom, see you after school!" I yelled as I ran out the door.

"Don't hurt yourself sweetheart." She called back.

And all of that led me to where I was, having to skate 6 miles to my school. I was going so fast, that at that point my surroundings had meshed together, forming un-solid blurs and blobs that may or may not have been people. I was pretty sure I hit a few of them by accident, but at this point, I've stopped caring about being polite. They could jump into moving traffic for all I cared, just so long as they got out of my way.

"I swear, if Mr. Shin makes me stand outside the class holding those damn text books.." I threatened harshly as the school came into view. I looked at my watch, hopeful I may have made it.

My heart shattered like glass upon realizing I was supposed to have been in my class five minutes ago.

I skidded to a stop in front of the gates that led to my school and kept going, roller blades still on, into the school.

Have you ever roller bladed into a private school that, not only prohibits dress code violations unless in an emergency, but you also get detention if you so much as run in the hall? Yea well, it's a sure fire way to get suspended if you go to said school.

As luck would have it, no teachers got in my way as I made my way to my classroom on the other side of the junior high, leaving the halls completely barren.

I almost missed my class in my mad dash to get there, and skidding to a stop I quickly sat down and listened to hear if he was lecturing.

"...and the yo form of usted is..." I heard his muffled voice say as I leaned my head against the door.

Good, he was lecturing today, so he wouldn't be paying as much attention.

I slowly opened the sliding door, only opening it enough to barely get myself through, and slowly closed it behind me. Yui, a good friend of mine who sits close to the door, peeked over at me and jumped a bit to see me slowly crawling to my seat. I looked up at her and playfully smiled and waved, putting a finger to my lips to indicate she needs to be quiet about this.

She rolled her eyes and looked back at the Spanish teacher.

Yui Hongo was a sweet girl, who made strait A's and was someone who I thought of as a best friend, and a rival in school. Her blond hair was cut short, and she had wide, intelligent blue eyes. She was tall, about my height, and always had her nose stuck in a book.

I passed her, and was almost to my seat when someone yelled:

"I WANT IT ALL, I'M HUNGRY!" There was a sudden loud crash, and I took that as my chance to quickly crawl to my seat and pretend like I had been there the whole time.

I looked over to see who had been my perfect little distraction to see it had been Miaka, another very good friend of mine, had hit Mr. Shin over the head with her desk, obviously thinking he had been trying to take her food she had dreamed up.

"Miaka, do you realize who you just hit with that desk?" Yui asked our hulk of a friend.

"Uh...the teacher?" Miaka squeaked fearfully.

"Bingo."

I laughed lightly at Miaka's antics. She was a short girl, with brown hair that was always piled into two buns on the top of her head and wide, curious green eyes. She was bit of a ditz, and would trade an arm and a leg for a good scoop of ice cream, but she was a great friend and would go to the ends of the world to help her loved ones, so she's good enough company.

"Miaka, take that out to the hall and hold that pose" Mr. Shin groaned as he fell to the ground, holding his head. Unfortunatly for Miaka, she had the desk held high over her head, so it'd be a long day for her.

"Hey Percy, how come you're wearin' skates?" Taiki, the class jerk, said loud enough for the whole class to hear. I tensed up like a cat, the hair on the back of my neck standing strait up and I started sweating bullets as I felt Mr. Shin glare at me from across the room.

"Persephony Hiroshima..." he growled angrily. I glared daggers into Taiki's head as I got up from my seat and skated to the back of the class and grabbed the text books on the back shelf, Mr. Shin not having to say anything, and left the classroom to go stand next to Miaka.

I should've just gone back to bed this morning.

Miaka and I had to stand like that the whole day. We switched off sometimes, because the poor girl was holding a desk above her head and her arms would have likely fallen off if I hadn't taken it from her.

I'm pretty sure I gained like, 10 pounds in muscle in my arms standing there. I tried taking my skates off, but Mr. Shin peeked his head out the classroom that very moment and yelled at me to stop, he wanted me to keep my skates on as I'm holding the books.

I shrugged, it was no sweat off my back.

At the end of the school day, we were finally allowed back into the classroom to gather our things and go home after being scolded my Mr. Shin. Miaka had a stern talking to about sleeping in class and hitting people upside the head with desks. I myself was scolded for being late for class and skating inside the school.

"Ow, my arms hurt!" Miaka whined, rolling her shoulders as she picked up her things.

"Oh, stop being a baby! You only held that desk an hour, maybe. You made me hold it the rest of the time!" I exclaimed, making sure Shin had left the classroom.

"But I would've died if I had to hold it the whole day! You know you love me for my weak arms!" She gushed as she held tightly to my torso.

"That doesn't even make sense, bun head!" I scolded, pushing her off of me.

"Mean Percy..." She mumbled pathetically while she crouched on the floor.

"Miaka, Percy, are you coming?" Yui called from the door.

"Yea, wait up!" Miaka called, completely recovered from before as she ran out the door.

"Hey, wait for me!" I yelled as I skated after them.

"So, why were you late this time, oh tardy one?" Yui joked as we stopped at the front of the school so I could take my skates off.

"The transportation system of Japan loves to see me squirm, that's why." I mumbled angrily as I yanked my left skate off and dug into my bag to fish out my shoes.

"Left without you again, huh?" Miaka laughed loudly. I threw my skate at her face in retaliation.

"Shut up! That stupid bus driver's hated me ever since my mom dumped that smoothie on him! It was his own fault for being a pervert." I exclaimed, shoving my foot into my shoe.

"He did have it coming...but I don't think you'll ever be able to get on the bus in peace again." Yui mused.

I sighed as I stood up and swung my bag and skates over my shoulder and huffed "Had I known what the outcome would have been, I wouldn't have bothered to come here after the damn bus soaked me."

"Is that why you're in civilian clothes today?" Miaka asked as we left the school grounds.

"Yea; my mom's gonna flip when she finds out about this though. It the third time in two weeks I've been late." I sighed in despair. I was always late it seemed, and honestly, I hated being late.

We all stopped for something to eat and ran into Genko and Hiromi. We started talking to them too as we continued on our way to the train station.

"I can't believe someone could be late or sleep in class while we're studying for our finals!" Yui huffed as we walked along the busy city streets.

"They aren't going to let you into Yotsubadai" Genko said. She was a bigger girl with black hair and the same haircut as Yui.

"So?" Miaka exclaimed "I don't want to go to Yotsubadai."

"Then what's your first choice?" Hiromi asked. She was a frail, very small girl who always had her hair in pig-tail braids.

"Jonan" I and she said in unison.

"WHAT?"

"You mean Jonan, as in the best school in our district Jonan?"

"Is there another one?" I mused. I was walking backwards, my roller blades hung on my shoulder, and my book bag was in my left hand as I fiddled with my skates' lace.

"Have you consulted your brain about this?" Hiromi asked, looking at Miaka skeptically.

"What about Yui and Percy? They wanna go there too!" Miaka exclaimed

"Well, that's a whole different story altogether"

"Why is it different? Why?" Miaka exclaimed.

"Because I'm a genius and you're stupid?" Yui teased

"Or because the only thing that you think about in that head of yours is food and shopping…but mostly food" I said as I paid for my train ticket.

"But Percy, you're always late! Don't you think they'll look at your attendance record and laugh?" Miaka whined. I simply stuck my tongue out at her

"Said the girl who hits a teacher on the head with a desk for waking her up, stuuuupiid"

"Are you guys really my best friends?" Miaka exclaimed

"I think I am" Yui mused

"You're kinda stuck with us love!" I exclaimed as I flung my arm around her neck.

"Come on you corn balls, come with me!" Yui said as the other two left to go to their own train.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because, we're going to the national library!" Yui exclaimed happily. How someone can act so chipper about a library is beyond me.

"That sounds like you. Alright, I'll admit it; you're the second smartest person in the whole school Yui Hongo!"

"Who's first?" Yui asked, her expression incredilous.

"Why me, Persephony Hiroshima, of course!" I exclaimed happily.

**Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading this, cause I enjoyed re-writing it! **

**A few things I wanna touch on:**

**The story is going to be the SAME. Same story, same background on my character, same EVERYTHING. Only thing I'm changing is the atrocious grammar, a few spelling mistakes and touching up the situations a little. **

**The beginning was completely re-done, so that'll be a breath of fresh air I hope! I went into her mother's story a LOT more, and I even gave Yui and Miaka a little description!**

**A HUGE shout out to AKIMOTO TSUBAKI for her wonderful help, and being an overall inspiration and a huge...SWEETY POT PIE. that's what she is. NOW GO READ HER STORY LOVE HURTS 5 WAYS BEFORE I CRY.**

**Anyway, hope you all like what you see, cause more is comin' your way soon :)**


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